Andreas Larsson

Caro Maurer

Su Birch, WOSA CEO

Flavours the focus for new world producers at Prowein 2012

BRAND ACTIVITY

Jan 18th, 10:50

Three influential and high-profile wine personalities from the Old World have been lined up to make a feature of flavour in a collaborative series of masterclasses involving five normally competing New World wine producers: Argentina, California, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa.

The three European-based wine educators, two of whom are renowned award-winning sommeliers, will present Flavours - A Whole New World@ProWein in Düsseldorf, Germany, in early March. ProWein is one of the most important international wine trade exhibitions and annually draws exhibitors from some 50 countries and close to 40 000 delegates. The New World initiative and masterclass sessions will form a show-within-a-show over the three-day event that runs from March 4 to 6.

The Flavours@ProWein presenters include Andreas Larsson, a multiple winner of sommelier titles, including Best Sommelier in the World awarded by the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale, Best Sommelier in Europe, Best Nordic Sommelier and Best Sommelier of Sweden. He is currently the wine director of leading Swedish restaurant PM & Vänner in Växjö and is also a wine writer and educator. Caro Maurer MW, who was the first German woman to earn her Masters of Wine, is a wine writer based in Bonn and contributes to a range of leading publications in Germany. She too is a wine educator and also judges in international wine shows. Ronan Sayburn MS, one of just 180 Master Sommeliers worldwide, is a former winner of the UK Sommelier of the Year title and is the director of wines and spirits at Hotel du Vin, a prominent group of boutique hotels in the UK.

The New World masterclass sessions will showcase the wines of the five countries, matching them with foods in a bid to focus on the versatility of New World offerings as viable and also affordable alternatives on wine menus. The pairings will be presented by the trio in a series of seminars.

The intention of Flavours@ProWein, says Wines of South Africa CEO Su Birch, is to “highlight what we produce in a fresh and appetising way. This is the third consecutive year the five countries are working in concert. Each year we accent a particular feature common to us all that offers a new way to introduce our best-of-best wines. This year we are raising their food-friendly profile.

“Wine is essentially about conviviality and enjoyment, and there is no better way to express that than at the table. Each of the five will focus on their signature wine flavours and use the opportunity to demonstrate their appeal when paired with both innovative and more traditional foods.

“We have deliberately involved three personalities whose training is European, so they can apply their own sensibilities and traditions in pairing our wines and in this way make them exciting but also accessible to a broad-based audience.

“We are extremely proud to have significant opinion-leaders of the calibre of Andreas, Caro and Ronan to demonstrate to both the off and on-trade, just what our wines can deliver.”

She said that the spirit of co-operation amongst the five wine regions, despite the growing competition for a share of global consumer spend, was a reflection of their ability to rise above national interests to enhance the standing of New World wines. “The specificity of each region will in no way be compromised, however. We are working in unison to express what makes each of us unique and distinctive. We are presenting a carefully collated spectrum of tastes.”

Flavours@ProWein will be housed in Hall 6, G90. Seminar places are limited to 60 delegates at each session. Larsson and Sayburn will present in English, while Maurer will present in German. Seminar bookings will be handled from the Hall 6, G90 on each of the three days. Delegates are urged to visit the Flavours@ProWein stand early each morning to guarantee their reservations, given that most of last year’s Down2Earth@ProWein seminars were oversubscribed.